Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. We considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday morning, and our report contains three technical and five merits points. All three technical reporting points highlight what appear to be issues of defective drafting. The Welsh Government's response to these reporting points acknowledges these errors, and we welcome the Government's commitment to make the...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you again, Dirprwy Lywydd. These regulations do, of course, form an important part of the devolved administrative justice system that we have and that is developing within Wales. We considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday morning, and our reports on all four sets of regulations have been laid to assist with this afternoon’s debate. My comments this afternoon will just...
Mick Antoniw: In response to our reporting point, the Welsh Government has confirmed that it did undertake an equality impact assessment as part of the integrated impact assessment for the package of regulations that are before us today. The Welsh Government has also provided details of where the summary of that integrated impact assessment can be found on its web pages, for which we are grateful. Turning...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Llywydd. We formally considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday morning and our report contains two merits points. Our first merits point notes that regulation 12 of the regulations allows local authorities to charge fees to cover the costs incurred in performing their licensing functions. Our second merits point indicates that concerns were raised with us regarding the...
Mick Antoniw: Diolch, Llywydd. We considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday morning, and our report contains one technical and two merits points. We noted a previous version of these regulations and a draft report on those regulations at our meeting on 15 March. As the Minister has just confirmed, following our report, the Welsh Government withdrew those regulations and relaid a new set, which...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Llywydd. We considered these regulations at our meeting on Monday morning, and our report contains two merits points. Our first merits point notes that the Order amends the home address form, which allows candidates to request that their home address not be made public on nomination forms. Where this is used, the candidate must provide the name of the Senedd constituency within...
Mick Antoniw: Diolch, again, Llywydd. Again, we considered these regulations at our meeting on Monday morning, and our report contains four merits points, some of which will, of course, be familiar to Members. Our first merits point notes that these regulations engage a landlord's rights under article 1 protocol 1 of the European convention on human rights. And we note that exceptions are included in the...
Mick Antoniw: And I welcome the motion, which, if agreed, will put in place procedures that will further enable the Senedd to improve the accessibility of Welsh law. Our committee began considering the Welsh Government’s plans for the consolidation of Welsh law early in 2017. We scrutinised the Legislation (Wales) Bill, prior to it being passed by this Senedd in July 2019. Notably, it places a duty on...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you to the First Minister for the nomination. I wish to pay tribute to Jeremy Miles who was in this role before me. Thank you to Jeremy Miles for his hard work in developing and promoting a legal jurisdiction for Wales and for defending the constitutional status of this Senedd on behalf of the people of Wales. Over the past few years, since Brexit and as a result...
Mick Antoniw: The pandemic, Llywydd, has drawn into sharp focus the influence and impact that the laws made here, in this Senedd, have upon the people of Wales's every day lives. The full impact of the devolution settlement has been recognised both here in Wales and across the United Kingdom. This Senedd and the legislative responsibilities that we are here to exercise have taken place in front and centre...
Mick Antoniw: I move it formally.
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to participate in this debate today. It's our first opportunity since the Senedd elections to consider some of the serious constitutional challenges facing Wales and the rest of the UK, and I am indeed grateful to Plaid Cymru for choosing to table this motion as one of their first debates of this sixth Senedd. It is likely to be...
Mick Antoniw: Formally.
Mick Antoniw: Diolch, Llywydd. In the five years since the referendum, we've debated the outcome on numerous occasions. Each time, we have made it clear that we respect the outcome of that referendum. In fact, we respect it more than the Members opposite, because we also respect the outcome together with the promises that were made to protect Wales and the Welsh economy. The Members opposite show a...
Mick Antoniw: Yet, with a competent and caring UK Government, it could have been so, so different. Instead, we have been delivered a trade agreement of gargantuan incompetence, which now threatens our economic and political stability, the fragmentation of the UK, and the undermining of peace in Northern Ireland. The impact on our economy is clear: reduced trade, as the Office for Budgetary Responsibility...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Jack Sargeant. I have regular discussions with the legal sector on a range of matters, including legislation relating to justice.
Mick Antoniw: Well, first of all, yes, I will be happy to meet with you and any other Members in respect of the issue of access to justice and the issues around legal aid. It's an issue which in previous Senedd sessions I've spoken on, and, of course, is a matter that very much engages the concerns, I think, of the judiciary and also of the Thomas commission. When legal aid was introduced in 1948, Viscount...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for that, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think, then, I'll just conclude on that particular question by basically saying that the advice and support that's put forward by Welsh Government is an attempt to repair the gap that exists at the moment, but certainly an unsatisfactory repair.
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for the question. Obviously, the issue of individual Members' legislation is a matter for you, and it's a matter for the Senedd. What I'm keen to do is to actually have discussions with the legal profession collectively about the way in which we are able to actually provide the advice and the support that give support to our communities, all those who are actually the most...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for that question. I've had an initial meeting with the Minister for Finance and Local Government to discuss budgets for my portfolio responsibilities. As the Thomas commission makes clear, expenditure on justice would be more effective if there were greater devolution, allowing us to take a whole-system approach.
